Journal 1-Findlay

Refine-How will I use this information in the classroom?

            The section on chapter 5 in Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL titled Home and School Environments that Nurture Emergent Literacy really hit home to me.  The families described sound very much like the families my students come from.  18 of my students come from a home where English is not the primary language.  All of my students are served by free and reduced lunch, and many of their parents are not literate or did not attend school after middle or high school.  I will admit that I have used that as an excuse in the past, by saying, “my students don’t have literature at home to build on.”  If I only took one thing from this reading assignment, it’s the fact that no matter the level of education, poverty, or language, all children have literacy experiences outside of school and these experience help them build their language abilities. 

            This is not to say that my job is over.  My job is just beginning.   I must use the literature that students do have to help promote both the students and their families understanding of what students should be learning.  Some suggestions given by the authors are ones that I plan on using in the near future.  A literacy backpack is a terrific idea.  I plan on using this to send home Language Arts games that the families can play together.  I would like to have several bags with different games that can be rotated through the students.    I would also like to use the idea presented in class and record books online that students can access at home.  I am going to have to begin by setting up a class website that I can save the recordings on.  Then I’ll have to choose some of the favorite books that we’ve read as a class and spend some time recording them.  This may be a big task but I think this is something that all of my students will love and benefit greatly from.  Lastly, I would like each student to have a journal as part of their homework.  It could serve two purposes.  First, this is where they will respond to the books they’ve read for reading homework.  I’d like this also, to be somewhat of a communication between the student and myself.  I think having them write a letter to me telling about what they read would be a fun way to practice writing with a purpose.  I then could respond to their letters with instruction or simply a note of encouragement.  

            Another topic discussed that I would like to improve on is involving parents in their child’s writing process.  After talking with parents during parent-teacher conferences, I realize that when I explain their child’s grades in writing, many of them think I am talking about handwriting.  They always tell me that they have their child write or copy things over and over again to practice writing neatly.  I try to explain, in my broken Spanish, that what I am more concerned about is their ideas, creativity, and originality in producing written pieces.  I think that if I included more writing activities that students could do at home which include the other members of the family, the students’ writing abilities would increase and the parents would become more aware of what it is that I’m looking for in terms of their child’s writing abilities. 

Lastly, chapter 26 in Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages focuses on using technology in the classroom.  Now, this is my cup of tea, however, I did read some great ideas on how to improve my technology use in the classroom.  One suggestion given was recording directions so that English learners can replay them and listen to them over and over again.  The website Voki.com allows you to create a character, record or type in text and the character talks.  I would like to use this for center directions.  I can record the directions for my math centers using a cute character and even a funny voice, and my students can replay them if needed.  This would not only provide them an opportunity to listen for an authentic purpose, and replay it for comprehension, but it would also relieve me of having to repeat directions multiple times for students who didn’t listen or failed to understand the first time. 

I believe that all of these ideas will benefit my English learners as well as native English speakers.  I am anxious to put them into use in my classroom.